


A Study in Death

by TheMysteriousGeek2345



Category: Sagas of Sundry, Sagas of Sundry: Dread
Genre: Angst, I'm only slightly evil :P, I'm sorry?, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 08:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12429438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMysteriousGeek2345/pseuds/TheMysteriousGeek2345
Summary: After the events of one year ago, Tanner and Kayden develop supernatural abilities.Both of those abilities relate very closely to death.





	A Study in Death

Tanner was the first to discover his ability.  
It had been five days since he had returned from that camping trip, five days since... Everything had changed. He'd been asked to take photos of his next door neighbour's birthday party. There were smiles, there was free food and cake, everything seemed so bright and optimistic.  
_Unlike the camping trip, Tanner thought bitterly, angry that he had to wake up every night to nightmares, because of what Kayden had done. Especially because..._  
_Especially because of what...?_  
_Tanner didn't know, or care. He was just so pissed off at Kayden..._  
The next day, he went to develop the film, and... The photos seemed different.  
They looked normal at a first glance, but the moment Tanner touched them, the images shifted and changed, until all Tanner could see were corpses.  
Most of them showed people who had died in their old age, surrounded by family and friends, comfortably in bed.  
But there was one image that was different.  
The next door neighbour's 19 year old son, Sammy, looked like he had barely aged a day. He was covered in blood, his eyes vacant, some of his limbs looked out of place (possibly dislocated or broken). Tanner felt bile when he swallowed, as he tried to resist the urge to throw up.  
Of course, Tanner tried to forget what he had seen, pretend that everything was the same. He went back to the house and delivered the pictures, making small talk with Sammy before he left.  
A few hours later, Sammy died in a car crash.  
After that, Tanner dreaded taking photos of other people. He didn't want to see anymore deaths, he didn't want to add to his nightmares. He also felt guilty, because he knew Sammy would die, and yet he said _nothing_.  
Of course, people asked, and of course Tanner couldn't try and say no without people calling him crazy. As he developed the film, he continued to see deaths, some people more lucky than others. No one was as unlucky as Sammy was, but a few people Tanner had taken pictures of were diagnosed with terminal illnesses shortly after their photos were taken.  
Instead, he liked to take photos of buildings, parks, deserted streets. Anywhere with dark spaces and not many people.  
_He just wanted to avoid the death._  
One night, Tanner absentmindedly picked up an photo of him and his friends that he had taken shortly before their camping trip. He could see that he had a long and happy life in front of him, as he saw himself eventually dying in his sleep next to his lover.  
The others however.... They all died together in a cavern of some sorts. They all died young. No one would ever find the bodies.  
The nightmares Tanner had that night... They were the worst nightmares he had ever had in his life.

\---

A year later, everything went wrong.  
Sat had organised another camping trip back to the same location they had gone to the year before, because she wanted answers and a chance to reconnect with the rest of the friendship group after a year's worth of silence.  
They'd all agreed, and now...  
Now they were in a cavern.  
All the colour from Tanner's face vanished the moment he realised where they were. This was the same cavern where... They died and he lived. If the picture was correct, this was the day that they died.  
No more Sat to reminisce about the past with. No more Raina, being passionate about her art. No more Darby, and her obsession with knowing everything.  
No more Kayden, and his....  
_Fuck, he was in love with Kayden._  
_Gods, he was hopeless._  
Yes, Tanner was angry that Kayden had introduced Sat to drugs. Yes, he was annoyed about how often Kayden seemed to pick on the others. But... There was something about Kayden that Tanner loved.  
_His confidence and screw everything attitude..._  
_How sometimes he could be really sweet, but he'd deny it profusely..._  
_His smile._  
Before Tanner could even begin to work out what that was, the others were talking about finding a way of identifying themselves in case that weird shapeshifter ghost thing imposter came back and tried to impersonate them.  
Tanner went first, making sure that the knife was hygienic, as he carved the number one into his wrist. He made up some excuse about meeting Sat in first Grade.  
But in truth, he was just staring at Kayden.  
After that...  
It was a blur.  
Everyone else carved something into their wrists.  
The skeletons came back to life.  
Him grabbing a bow and arrow to fight them all back...  
He didn't care if he lived or died. He just wanted to make sure that his friends were safe. He resisted their attempts to get him to retreat, as he focused on firing every shot.  
But they were getting closer, and closer, and eventually Tanner could only feel pain.  
And only see darkness.

\---

Kayden was the last to discover his abilities.  
The four of them had just escaped from the cave where... Where Tanner had died. He'd died saving them, getting crushed and eaten by... What ever those things were.  
_Fuck, he never got to tell Tanner that he loved him..._  
As he listened to the others talking about what to do next, how they could bring Tanner back, he looked away. He felt so _lost_ , so empty. Yes, he was such a jerk to Tanner sometimes, but... Tanner meant a lot to him.  
Which was why it hurt so much to hear that Tanner hated him.  
Eventually, Darby decided to enact her goat ritual, and apparently the Goatman was on their side. They needed to cleanse the land, and defeat the darkness, or something like that.  
"Where am I?" Kayden turned around, and he gasped.  
It was Tanner.  
"Tanner?" Kayden said, surprise evident in his voice, "How... How the fuck..are you here? You..."  
"I what?" Tanner asked, fear evident in his voice. He looked exactly the same as when Kayden had last seen him, except he was without his camera and his shirt was strained Crimson with his blood.  
Kayden was about to reply, when he heard the others calling for him. He turned and looked at Tanner, the look of absolute guilt in his eyes. Tanner looked so confused, so _lost_ , just like Kayden himself was.  
"Wait there." Kayden ordered quickly, "There's something... I need to do. When I get back, I'll explain everything. Got it?"  
"Please, let me come with you." Tanner said pleadingly, "I need to see the others and tell them that I'm..."  
"You died Tanner." Kayden said, his voice cracking as he tried to fight back the tears. Tanner stared at Kayden for a few seconds, trying to tell if Kayden was telling the truth or not, before he muttered "I'm not dead" repeatedly under his breath.  
"Who are you talking to, Kayden?" Kayden could suddenly hear Sat talking to him. He turned around, and saw a look of utter confusion and sadness on Sat's face. She didn't even seem to realise that Tanner's ghost was standing right there next to him.  
_He couldn't tell her that Tanner was there._  
From the corner of his eye, he could see Tanner trying to embrace Sat in a hug, trying to tell her that he was ok, that he was alive. Instead, he passed right through her, and fell to the ground.  
"I just needed to talk to myself for a bit." Kayden lied smoothly, staring at where Tanner had fallen. He had sat up by this point, and he looked broken, devastated to find out that he was no longer alive. Kayden quickly mouthed an apology to him, knowing that it wasn't enough.  
_It wouldn't bring him back_  
"We need to head back to the well, in order to find the stuff needed to bring Tanner back. Are you coming or not?" Sat said quietly.  
"Give me a moment." Kayden said quietly, "You go on ahead. I'll be with you in a second."  
With that, Sat walked away. Immediately Kayden offered a hand to Tanner, unsure of Tanner would just pass through his hand if he tried to take Kayden up on his offer. Tanner ignored the offer, getting himself up on the ground instead.  
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Tanner." Kayden said sadly, struggling to work out what to say next.  
"It's... It's ok..." Tanner said in response, also struggling to find the words, "You... Go and do the thing that you need to do. I'll wait for you."  
Kayden nodded.

\--- 

Eventually, through sheer fluke and insanity, the land had been cleansed, the darkness was gone and the four of them were safe to leave.  
_But the ritual didn't bring him back._  
_Why didn't it bring him back._  
Sat, Darby, Raina and himself had slowly made their way back down the mountain, back to civilisation. But they were anything but cheery. They knew that they would have to tell Tanner's parents that they would never see their son again, and that there was no body to bury. They would all still have their shit to deal with, their nightmares to fight.  
But Kayden realised, as he stared down at his arm where the XX was carved, they did have something that they didn't have last year- Each other.  
Mostly.  
_Their friendship group would never be fully complete._  
Finally, they got back to the place where Kayden had seen Tanner's ghost. Kayden told the others to go on ahead, as there was something that he needed to do first. The girls nodded, allowing him a moment of privacy.  
It took a few moments for Kayden to find Tanner, sitting underneath a large tree. Kayden walked towards him, before sitting down next to him.  
"Hey Tanner." Kayden said, sounding both guilty and awkward, "So.. Er, we helped cleanse the land. Stopped what ever crazy shit was going on here."  
_He couldn't bring him back._  
A few seconds passed, as neither of them knew what to say next. Kayden tried to avoid making eye contact with Tanner, instead focusing on where Tanner's camera should be.  
"I.. I remembered how I died." Tanner said suddenly, "I died protecting all of you, didn't I?"  
Kayden nodded, closing his eyes in order to hide the fact that he was beginning to cry. Tanner had been so stupid, and so brave, and... Kayden loved him for it.  
"So, it worked." Tanner said, a sigh of relief escaping his non-corporal body, "My plan worked."  
"What plan?" Kayden said, anger slightly evident in his voice, "What fucking plan involves you dying in order for everyone to survive?"  
"I..." Tanner paused for a second, "After the camping trip last year... Every time I touched a photograph, I would find out how that person would die. You remember Sammy? I saw his death, and didn't do anything to try and stop it. I saw Sat's death, and Darby's, and Raina's death... And your death. When we went into that cavern... I knew I had to do something, so..."  
"So you sacrificed yourself in our place?" Kayden interrupted angrily, "What about your parents? What... What about us? We saw you die and we couldn't do anything to help you! Why didn't you tell us? We would've..."  
"Would you have believed me though?" Tanner asked quietly, "You didn't believe Darby's rituals, after all, and my story was infinitely more crazy..."  
"That's.. That's..." Kayden began, before he admitted, "You're right. Tanner... Before this camping trip, I had no fucking purpose. I didn't know shit about anything, especially with what I was going to do with my life. I... Tried to join an art school that focused on photography... But I got kicked out. This camping trip, it helped me find my purpose. To protect my friends. I would have allowed myself to fucking die if that meant the rest of you were safe. Especially... Especially you."  
"Why me?" Tanner asked, sounding surprised.  
"I... I love you." Kayden said quietly, feeling vulnerable for the first time around Tanner.  
"I love you too." Tanner whispered in Kayden's ear, "Yes, I said I loved Sat before I died, but that was like a sister. She had been my closest friend since 1st grade, which was one of the reasons that I carved the '1' into my arm. Yes, I blamed you for everything that happened last year, but I was trying so hard to deny that any of this had happened, and you were the easiest person to blame, especially because of what you did to Sat. I'm sorry for that. In truth... That '1' also had another meaning. It.. Kinda represented the fact that you were my one true love."  
Kayden could suddenly feel something touching his right hand. He looked down, and saw that Tanner was gently holding onto his hand. Kayden looked up at Tanner, and could see that Tanner was surprised by this revelation.  
"When I tried to hug Sat, I passed through her, and yet... I can interact with you." Tanner said, sounding confused, "Why is that?"  
"I guess it's like your photograph thing?" Kayden said quietly, "Like, the photos only change if you touch them, and I'm the only one that can interact with the dead?"  
"Perhaps." Tanner said quietly, "I'm just glad that I don't just pass through you if I try and touch you."  
"Same here." Kayden admitted, with a smile.  
The two of them shared a few more moments together, before they walked back to where the other three were waiting for them. They then got back in the car, and drove away from that place that caused them to have so many nightmares, and promised that neither them or the others would go back there again.  
_But Kayden would still have to tell the others that he could interact with Tanner's ghost._  
_That would definitely have to come later._

**Author's Note:**

> One of the two Dread fics I wrote is getting published on this site before the new series airs? What madness is this?  
> Yeah, took a while, and I'm still not happy with the second segment. But I hope that you enjoyed it?  
> I like to imagine Darby, Raina and Sat also developing abilities but didn't know what to give them.  
> Also the ending was much more optimistic than I originally had in mind...  
> Also gods italics are annoying to do on this site. Prefer this site to Fanfiction, but I'll admit the editing software on Fanfiction is so much better.


End file.
